Android smartphone shipments skyrocket as AOSP (for China) sounds off

There are a couple of reports out this week on the state of the mobile smart device industry, both of them centered on shipment and both of them suggesting that Android is doing exceedingly well. The first comes from Strategy Analytics and focuses on the entire year in smartphone shipments, suggesting that Android has "captured 79 percent share of all smartphones shipped worldwide." Meanwhile ABI Research has suggested that the fourth quarter of the 2013 season has also shown itself to belong to Android, ringing in a cool 77% market share for the Google-made mobile operating system in smartphone shipments.

ABI Research is reporting specifically on the fourth quarter of the year for 2013, suggesting that Android and AOSP are growing side-by-side. AOSP is the Android Open Source Project, a distribution of Android without Google's apps and services, mostly affecting China since China isn't all about distributing Google's bits and pieces.

So you've got Android and AOSP growing to 77% share for the fourth quarter of 2014 in worldwide shipments of smartphones according to ABI Research. Meanwhile Apple's iOS hits in at 18%, Windows Phone sticks in at 4%, and BlackBerry OS is at 1% - while BlackBerry 10 specifically is at less than 1%, but still ringing in above Firefox, Windows Mobile, and Symbian.

Strategy Analyics also weighs in a bit on the fourth quarter of 2013, suggesting that Android controls 78.4% of the market for this quarter specifically, while Apple's iOS sits in at 17.6%. Microsoft's Windows Phone commands just 3.2% of the market during the quarter and "others" ring in at 0.7% globally.

For the full year there's a very, very similar story going on here with Strategy Analytics look: 78.9% of the market went to Android, 15.5% went to Apple's iOS for iPhones, and Microsoft stuck with 3.6%.

Year-over-year the entire industry grew a massive 41.4% total, showing the beastly pace at which smartphones are being shipped across the globe.